1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vehicle disabling devices used by law enforcement vehicles to stop fleeing suspect vehicles. More particularly, this invention relates to a vehicle-disabling device that can be projected from a police vehicle toward a rear tire of a fleeing vehicle, said device flattening the tire of the fleeing vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the most difficult problems currently facing law enforcement is the issue of high-speed vehicle pursuits. Once a police vehicle activates its forward facing red light and sounds its siren, any vehicle in front of the police vehicle is required by law to pull over to the right side of the road and stop. When a suspect vehicle fails to do this, police are faced with the choice of going into pursuit or letting the suspect go. Neither alternative is a good one. High-speed pursuits injure and kill many innocent people every year and some police departments no longer chase fleeing vehicles. The problem with a no-pursuit policy is that criminals become more brazen in their activities, confident that the police will not chase them if they are in a motor vehicle. Many devices have been developed to stop a fleeing vehicle but all prior designs have limitations, which the present invention overcomes. To better understand the advantages of the present invention, the prior art will be described.
The pursuit intervention technique is a method of trying to throw the suspect vehicle out of control. The police vehicle tries to make contact with the fleeing vehicle, generally pushing the left rear side of the suspect with the right front side of the police vehicle. Because the front of a vehicle is usually heavier than the back because of the weight of the engine, it is sometimes possible to shove the rear of a fleeing vehicle sideways, causing it to lose control and go into a spin while the police vehicle stays in control. This technique is quite dangerous, involving vehicle-to-vehicle contact at high speeds. In the process of pushing the suspect, the police vehicle could also go out of control and will experience collision damage during the aggressive contact. Thus, police vehicle, suspect vehicle or both could go out of control, endangering everybody on the road. Some prior art patents show big hooks or grappling fixtures attached to the front of the police vehicle to link the police vehicle to the suspect vehicle. This causes the police vehicle to become vulnerable to the suspect's actions, which could force both vehicles into a crash. Another weakness of the pursuit intervention technique is that it does not actually disable the fleeing vehicle but merely throws it into a spin. It is out of control while it is spinning but, if it does not experience a disabling crash, after it stops spinning the driver could resume his attempts to evade capture.
The most common technique used by law enforcement is to lay down spike strips across the road, positioned so that the suspect vehicle will drive over them. Various types of spikes are available to either rapidly or slowly deflate a tire. In order for this technique to work, law enforcement must correctly anticipate where the suspect vehicle will go, get there first and lay out the spike strips in front of it. On a multi-lane road, unless the spikes are laid down across all lanes, the fleeing vehicle can swerve to avoid the strips. Also, any other vehicle coming along could run over the strips. Thus, spike strips can only be used when officers are at a position where the suspect is going to pass by and no other vehicles are going to pass by. Spike strips deflate a vehicle's front tires because those tires are the first to roll over the spike strips. Thus, there is the possibility that a suspect vehicle could lose control and crash into another vehicle or a pedestrian.
In addition to spike strips, there are other ways to put barriers across a road such as parking heavy trucks end to end across all lanes or the eastern European (behind the iron curtain) technique of pushing big concrete blocks on rollers out to barricade the road. Similar to spike strips, officers must anticipate where the suspect will go and any other traffic that would normally pass through must be diverted or stopped. If the suspect vehicle is going too fast to stop before hitting the barricades, the suspect could be killed, making this a potentially deadly use of force.
A review of the prior art shows several patents wherein a bundle of two or more spike strips are propelled lengthwise like an arrow between the two rear wheels of a fleeing vehicle. With means to open the bundle, each spike strip rotates ninety degrees to create a spike strip barrier parallel to the fleeing vehicle's rear axle. If the bundle opens in front of the rear tires, said rear tires will drive over said spike strips. If such a device deploys late, it will blow out the front tires. If it rotates during its travel, it might deploy perpendicular to the tire axles and do nothing at all. If such a device deploys early, it will bounce against the back of the rear tires, probably getting kicked away. If the force of impact into the back of the tires is strong enough that the spikes take hold, the whole assembly will rotate up with the rotation of the tires. The center portion of said assembly will then be slammed into the bottom of the gas tank. Experiments have shown that when both tires are attacked at the same time with devices that are linked together, the connecting cable will slam into the bottom of the fleeing vehicle's gas tank.
The prior art shows examples where a strong electromagnetic pulse is to be used to disable a vehicle. This would require a very strong discharge of energy such as occurs inside a microwave oven or during a lightning strike. Such a technique would only work on cars with electronic ignition, the pulse destroying at least some electronic components. An energy level high enough to do this would threaten the health of anyone inside or near the targeted vehicle. It would kill someone with a pacemaker, even if they were in another vehicle nearby or on a sidewalk. Such an energy discharge could possibly cause a vehicle gas tank to explode (on the suspect vehicle or any other vehicle nearby).
Another prior art design involves firing projectiles such as bullets at tires. Tires are small, hard targets to hit, and bullets that miss could hit an innocent bystander or a vehicle gas tank.
The most common prior art design in the patent archives shows various ways of using electronic remote control to cause a fleeing vehicle to stop. Radio devices send a signal from a police vehicle to a suspect vehicle, which then cooperates with the police by shutting down the suspect vehicle's engine. There is also a design wherein an encoded laser in a police vehicle is shined on a sensor on the back of the suspect vehicle. The fleeing vehicle recognizes the signal as being a legitimate law enforcement command and electronics on-board the suspect vehicle shut down the engine. One problem with any of these designs is that they will not work on a vehicle that is not equipped with the appropriate electronic devices. Another problem is that criminals could disable such devices. In the laser halting system, a piece of black masking tape covering the optical sensor on the back of the suspect vehicle would render that system inoperative.
Some prior art designs show the use of combustion-suppressing gas to suffocate the engine of a fleeing vehicle. To work, this design would require a large quantity of gas. A small amount of gas might cause the engine to stall momentarily but it would restart after the car had rolled out of the gassed area. Any gas that will asphyxiate an air-breathing engine will asphyxiate an air-breathing human being. If enough gas can be released to make this technique work, anyone within the affected area (drivers, passengers or pedestrians) will face a lethal threat. If there were a wind present, the gas might be blown away from the fleeing vehicle and into some other area such as a school playground.
Other designs have shown the technique of projecting a radio beacon or transponder from the police vehicle to the suspect vehicle. This radio locating transmitter would have means that enable it to attach to the fleeing vehicle. It would then broadcast a signal (possibly including Global Positioning System data) to identify its location. This technique is similar to the way marine biologists tag a whale or shark and then track its movements. The technique does nothing to control or stop the fleeing vehicle.
Thus, it can be seen that there is a long-felt but unfilled need for a device which will enable officers in a police vehicle to quickly and safely stop any vehicle in front of them which fails to pull over on command. The present invention satisfies this need.